Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Hatch Joins Kennedy to Back a Health Program

See the article in its original context from
March 14, 1997, Section A, Page 24Buy Reprints
TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers.

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, a conservative Republican, today embraced a major Democratic effort to provide health insurance for half of the nation's 10 million uninsured children, saying he would become the chief sponsor of the legislation.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, wrote much of the bill, which would increase the Federal tax on tobacco products to finance health care for children.

The two Senators announced their plans at a conference of the Children's Defense Fund. Congress has barely begun work on the legislation. No hearings have been held, and the tax increase on cigarettes faces an uphill battle. But Mr. Hatch's announcement was a coup for advocates of child health programs, including many Democrats.

It also shows the curious politics of such programs. Mr. Hatch, from Utah, said he was offering the legislation to prove that the Republican Party ''does not hate children,'' and he added that ''as a nation, as a society, we have a moral responsibility'' to provide coverage for the most vulnerable children.

Senator Kennedy said he would work with Mr. Hatch as he worked last year with Nancy Landon Kassebaum, the former Republican Senator from Kansas, to pass legislation guaranteeing access to health insurance for millions of people who change jobs or lose their jobs. Mrs. Kassebaum, now Nancy Kassebaum Baker, retired this year.

Mr. Hatch said he and Mr. Kennedy were sometimes called a ''legislative odd couple.'' The two have worked together on legislation involving public health, biomedical research, AIDS, child care, summer job programs and civil rights for people who are disabled.

Senator Hatch noted he had recently been described as a ''latter-day liberal'' in The National Review, a conservative journal. And he did not reject that description.

''Children are being terribly hurt and perhaps scarred for the rest of their lives'' when they have no health insurance, Mr. Hatch said.

The Hatch-Kennedy bill would raise $30 billion in revenue over five years. Two-thirds of the money would be distributed to the states for child health initiatives. One-third would be used to reduce the Federal budget deficit.

Under the bill, states that want Federal grants would have to contribute money according to a formula set by Congress. Aides to Mr. Hatch predicted that new state spending would total $3 billion over five years. The states would sign contracts with insurance companies to offer policies covering children.

The benefits would be identical to those available under a state's Medicaid program. Such benefit packages now vary widely by state, but are more generous than the coverage typically offered by private employers to their employees.

Under Mr. Hatch's bill, each state would establish its own eligibility criteria, but the poorest children would be served first. Aides to Mr. Hatch said children would not have a legally enforceable right, or entitlement, to benefits if a state ran out of money in a particular year.

The bill would increase the Federal excise tax on cigarettes to 67 cents a pack from 24 cents. It is highly unlikely that Congress would approve such an increase, and it is not clear what other means Mr. Hatch and Mr. Kennedy might use to finance their proposal.

Mr. Hatch has adhered to the Republican philosophy of ''no new taxes.'' But he said he concluded that higher tobacco taxes were justified because smoking severely harmed the health of millions of Americans.

Senator Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican who is chairman of the subcommittee on health care, is working on a more modest bill to expand health insurance for children. Larry Neal, a spokesman for Mr. Gramm, said, ''I feel certain that our bill won't involve tax increases of any sort.''

Mr. Hatch said he was an expert on the health care needs of children because he had 6 children and 17 grandchildren. Utah, with its large Mormon population, has the highest fertility rate and the lowest median age of any state. Thirty-five percent of Utah residents are under the age of 18. For the nation as a whole, the comparable figure is 26 percent.

Lawmakers will have to wrestle with two troublesome questions as they work on health insurance legislation for children. One question is whether the cost of the new program would be partly offset by cuts in Medicaid, the Federal-state health program for poor people. Another question is how to prevent employers and employees from using the new program as a reason to cut back their contributions for the purchase of private health insurance.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 24 of the National edition with the headline: Hatch Joins Kennedy to Back a Health Program. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT